Regional Security After the Gulf War

The Gulf War of 1989-1990 unleashed a regional dialogue concerning what security arrangements should be established to discourage a repetition of this bloody encounter and to foster regional security. Predictably, many of the most affected states scurried in various and sometimes opposite directions in the hurried search for security. Numerous happenings reveal a region engaged in an intense debate over how to organize regional politics and how best to protect the security of its members: the 1990 Damascus Declaration that established a nominal military alliance between the Gulf Arab states, Egypt, and Syria; the rapid military build-ups and inflow of arms transfers; the series of bilateral agreements between various Western and Arab Gulf states; the continuing discussions among the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council; the 1991 Madrid Conference that inaugurated the multilateral talks between Israel and the Arab states; the Declaration of Principles between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that established a framework for ending the conflict; and the tacit and explicit recognition of Israel's sovereignty by other Arab states. This article focuses on three features of this debate. First, Arab states are exhibiting new patterns of interactions, departing from the promise of close association based on a shared identity and common values. Instead they have converged on rules of the game that revolve around sovereignty and are designed to protect the security of the separate Arab states. But Arab states are also addressing whether they and non-Arab states, notably Israel, should construct common institutions. In doing so they are considering the fundamental relationship between the state's identity and the desired regional order. Second, the region is caught between the impulse of competitive arrangements that celebrate self-help and immediate security gratification and the promise of cooperation that relies on the language of assurance rather than deterrence. The

Alliance · Declaration · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Security interest · Sociology · Sovereign state · Sovereignty · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts

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